Revolutionary United Front

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Template:Politicsboxend The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was a rebel army that fought a failed ten-year insurrection in Sierra Leone, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. The RUF was rather unusual in that it had no true ideology outside of discontent and opposition to the current Sierra Leone government. While its goal was clearly to overthrow the government of Sierra Leone, the RUF gave little indication of what sort of government would replace it. The group did not advocate Marxism or any such leftist ideology, nor did it advocate extreme nationalism or Fascism. It also did not claim to be a force fighting for a certain ethnic group or region. At one point, during ongoing peace negotiations, RUF published a pamphlet, which contained some rhetoric references to social justice and pan-Africanism. Among armed military groups therefore, it is very difficult to classify.

The war is estimated to have cost the lives of between 50,000 and 200,000 people. The Revolutionary United Front Party is nowadays a political party. The current (as of 2006) general secretary of the party is Jonathan Kposowa. At the last elections, May 14 2002, the party won 2.2 % of popular votes and no seats. Its candidate at the presidential elections, Alimamy Pallo Bangura, received 1.7% of the vote.

Led by Foday Sankoh, the RUF developed a reputation for enormous cruelty during its decade-long struggle. The RUF made extensive use of child soldiers, using horrific methods to numb their new recruits to barbarity. Thousands of abducted boys and girls were forced to serve as soldiers or as prostitutes, and those chosen to be fighters were sometimes forced to murder their parents. Guerillas frequently carved the initials "RUF" on their chests, and officers reportedly rubbed cocaine into open cuts on their troops to make them manic and fearless. For entertainment, some soldiers would bet on the sex of an unborn baby and then slice open a woman's womb to determine the winner.

The RUF was notorious for amputating the limbs of those victims it did not murder, particularly children. Brandishing machetes, RUF troops amputated the hands, arms, and legs of tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans. The RUF indicated that the reason for these actions was that amputees could no longer grow rice, which might be used to support government troops, nor could they vote. The RUF is also said to have practiced cannibalism.

The RUF was created by Sankoh and two allies, Abu Kanu and Rashid Mansaray, with substantial assistance from Charles Taylor of Liberia. At first, the RUF was popular with Sierra Leoneans, many of whom resented a Freetown elite seen as corrupt and looked forward to promised free education and health care and equitable sharing of diamond revenues. Sankoh did not stand by these promises and used funds from diamond sales to buy arms for Taylor and himself. With the diamond mines under the control of the rebel group, the RUF became singularly focused on protecting its resource base. Sierra Leone's economy collapsed, with ordinary citizens trapped between the cruelty of RUF troops and starvation. After a coup by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) in 1997, the RUF and AFRC created a joint junta to control the country before evicted from the capital by the invasion of a Nigerian-led West African force that reinstated the rule of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

In March 1997, Sankoh fled to Nigeria, where he was put under house arrest, and then imprisoned. From this time until Sankoh's release in 1999, Sam Bockarie performed the task of director of military operations of the RUF. In 1999, an intervention by America, the United Kingdom, and other countries as well as the UN resulted in the signing of the Lomé Peace Accord on 7 July, 1999. Sankoh was allowed to return under the conditions of the agreement. However fighting again broke out, and the United Nations sent peacekeeping troops in hopes of integrating the RUF into a new national army. This intervention failed as well, and by 2000 they held 500 UN peacekeepers hostage until their release was negotiated by Taylor. The British and Guineans finally sent in a small professional force in 2001. The RUF was routed and the revolution ended. Sankoh was captured by a mob and handed to the British where he was indicted for multiple war crimes by a UN-backed court.de:Revolutionary United Front es:Frente Revolucionario Unido fr:Revolutionary United Front